Best suited for younger readers - Rated 
This book is best suited for younger readers as it is quite small. It gave me an insight of Nigeria 1950's and 1960's but I finished it within two hours even though I took a break to have my dinner.
It is compact but it tells a good story
The Decline and Fall of an Idealistic Man - Rated
Chinua Achebe's has the supreme ability to tell a story the way it is. With Achebe, there is no high-minded judgment; no ascription of guilt; no rebuttal of colonialism, and no axe to grind. In this wonderful book, Achebe takes the reader on a journey, charting the inexorable descent of a dashing, idealistic Civil Servant in Colonial Nigeria.
The novel is set in the 1950's and the protagonist is the young, Western-educated Obi Okonkwo. Obi, the grandson of Okonkwo, the tragic protagonist of Achebe's great novel, Things Fall Apart, is sent on a scholarship to Great Britain, where he studies English. On his return to Nigeria, Obi is automatically catapulted into the elite ranks of the Civil Service; he receives a nice car and a posh apartment in a smart `all European" neighbourhood in the capital city, Lagos. Therefore, at the age of twenty-five, Obi, who was raised in a provincial back water, seems to be on his way to the top.
However, all is not well with Obi. He struggles to reconcile his Western training and Christian upbringing with his native Ibo traditions. In time Obi falls for the beautiful Clara and proposes to marry her. One small snag: Clara belongs to a cast of untouchables called the Osu. His parents, especially his dying mother, are dead set against the union. Moreover, the tactless Obi is beset by financial problems almost from the onset; he cannot seem to make ends meet even on his `fat' government salary. His problems are compounded by his mother's death and Clara's unexpected pregnancy. Reality slowly erodes Obi's idealism and he finds that he cannot resist the lucre that his Civil Service position offers. Alas, such ill-gotten wealth is a poisoned chalice. Our hero is caught accepting a bribe, and this rising star declines ignominiously.
No Longer at Ease is perhaps the most accessible of Achebe's writings, as it is set in the 1950's (mostly in Lagos). It features an interesting range of characters. They include Mr Greene, Obi's paternalistic `old school' colonial boss, who cannot stand educated Africans and is disappointed that his mission to `civilise the African' seems to have failed; Ms Tomlinson, the attractive English spinster doing a stint in the Colonies; and Isaac Okonkwo, Obi's father, whose unflinching practice of Christianity has alienated him from his native traditions.
As a Nigerian, who was raised in Lagos, I thoroughly appreciated how Achebe captured the sometimes irreconcilable tension between traditional and modern values. One of the most poignant passages in the novel is a conversation between Obi Okonkwo and his father. Obi tries to convince his father that the fact that Clara is an untouchable should not matter since they are Christians. Obi says, `The Bible says that in Christ there are no bond and free'. His father replies, `My son, I understand what you say but this thing is deeper than you think'.Yes, Nigeria's glib acceptance of `modernity' belies a deep sense of dislocation from one's cultures.
Like a master painter, Achebe captures this sense of alienation and how it has transmuted into public apathy to - even disdain for - the institutions that pass for government in post-colonial Nigeria. No Longer at Ease, like Things Fall Apart and A Man of the People before it, deserves my 5 stars.
I loved it - Rated
No Longer at Ease is beautifully written book about colonialism and the alienating influence it has on those Africans who lose touch with their roots as they try to adapt to the changing times. I enjoyed this rich, challenging and fascinating story. The Usurper and Other Stories, The Village of waiting, Disciples of Fortune, Anthills of the Savannah, Triple Agent Double Cross are some of the other African titles I enjoyed.
"A journey on a downward spiral with the protagonist." - Rated 
I've acquired a taste for Achebe and his ways, but this lesser known work is the one that I've enjoyed most. The author has come under criticism from feminists for the relegation of women in his novels, but for me he is describing a reality rather than making value judgements himself. Some of Achebe's literature is difficult for a twenty-first century Westerner to understand as it focuses so much on the traditional African ways of life, and perhaps this novel, set in the 1960's in the city of Lagos, is easier for us to comprehend. This book captured my full sympathies: it is easy to see the inevitability of corruption in the society Achebe is describing, and the reader is encouraged to journey on a downward spiral along with the protagonist. Thus the reader forms a bond with the youthful, intelligent and idealistic Obi and is left drenched with a sense of poignancy and anger.
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